Not exactly what Willie Nelson had in mind, but I was singing this modified version of his classic as I jogged the trail today. It was the first time back on the trail since I injured my calf muscle about a week ago. I was going to run yesterday but my calf was still a little sore. So I opted for another day of rest.
I took the pace nice and easy today. I ran a portion of the trail that has very few inclines or declines and slowed my pace further for the few that I did encounter. I went a little over 3 miles and my legs felt fine. An hour or two after I finished I could feel a little pressure in my calf muscle, but no pain. I am going to rest again tomorrow and then go for another slow and easy jog on Wednesday.
I've had some time over the last week to think about my running and my string of calf muscle injuries. As I look back on the dates of the injuries and compare the dates to my training records I found an interesting connection. Each injury was during a time when I was trying to increase my pace. I was unable to find any time that I experienced the injuries when I was running nice and slow. What does that mean for me?
I'm not ready for speed. I will continue working on building my distance and endurance. But I will keep my pace slow. Once I achieve my distance goal, if it makes sense to do so, I will then start working on my speed. Distance first, speed later. Bottom line... I need to...
So that will be my approach for now and until I achieve my ultramarathon goal.
Speaking of that... my first milestone race is this upcoming Saturday. So I will continue to rest and keep my mileage low this week in order to ensure I am ready for the race. I have no concerns about going the distance, as long as my calf muscle holds up. I'll follow the same rule during the race also... SLOW DOWN!
I think I've finally realized that slow running is better than no running!
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